Fri 7th Apr: The Betfred Championship (Non-TV) Match Thread

[Griff]

1 hour ago, Barley Mow said:

So Emmanuel Waine, Wellington Albert and Henry Raiwalui weren't able to play for London Broncos yesterday because they couldn't enter France due to visa requirements for citizens of PNG and Fiji.

To me it doesn't seem acceptable that teams should be weakened when they play away in Toulouse for reasons like this.

Is there anything the RFL, etc could do about it?

No.

[kiggy]

52 minutes ago, gazza77 said:

Or London should arrange for their playing staff to have the appropriate visas? 

Couple of the Elite lads for TO haven't got their passports sorted yet, so they can't travel to the UK to play. Idiots. They knew before the season started they may need to play in the UK.and were told to get it sorted. It's not as though they are expensive or the process is difficult.

[RBKnight]

1 hour ago, Barley Mow said:

So Emmanuel Waine, Wellington Albert and Henry Raiwalui weren't able to play for London Broncos yesterday because they couldn't enter France due to visa requirements for citizens of PNG and Fiji.

To me it doesn't seem acceptable that teams should be weakened when they play away in Toulouse for reasons like this.

Is there anything the RFL, etc could do about it?

A number of Championship teams found that some of their players couldn't get past the stringent Canadian visa entry requirements, so sent weakened teams out to Toronto.

[POR]

Wellington Albert played for FEV in TO in 19 Preliminary final now he can't go SO what's changed 

[Michael Bates]

7 minutes ago, POR said:

Wellington Albert played for FEV in TO in 19 Preliminary final now he can't go SO what's changed 

Sounds like something London haven't done correctly.

[The Phantom Horseman]

4 hours ago, POR said:

Wellington Albert played for FEV in TO in 19 Preliminary final now he can't go SO what's changed 

Not saying this is the issue here, but I can definitely think of something that's changed since 2019 that might complicate matters for people travelling from the UK to France...

[Cowboy]

On 08/04/2023 at 19:59, gazza77 said:

Which presumably was known when they signed. 

I'm not going to suggest it was easy, however Whitehaven don't appear to have had any issues with their Fijian player, Lasarusa Tabu, who played in Toulouse on 4th March. That would indicate to me that it's possible to get the paperwork sorted. 

I think with this particular player,I believe Lasarusa Tabu ,is actually a French citizen of Fijian origin. Having played for Carcassonne for a number of seasons and having children born in France etc.

[tim2]

Surely RU has the same issue with Pacific players? They also have to go to Italy and South Africa for club games. They either get it sorted or we just don't hear about it.

[Barley Mow]

24 minutes ago, tim2 said:

Surely RU has the same issue with Pacific players? They also have to go to Italy and South Africa for club games. They either get it sorted or we just don't hear about it.

I was also thinking I've not heard of any issues with teams travelling to play Catalans.

Perhaps it is complicated with it not being the top tier/full time players travelling over.

[Cheadle Leyther]

On 07/04/2023 at 23:14, sentoffagain2 said:

  One of the worst displays from a ref i have seen in 68 years.And believe me i have seen a few.

It would help if you could tell us which match you’re talking about!!

[Trojan]

1 minute ago, Cheadle Leyther said:

It would help if you could tell us which match you’re talking about!!

He's talking about Batley v Fev.  Fev did very well to win given Batley's 13-4 penalty advantage and the slope second half.

[sentoffagain2]

48 minutes ago, Cheadle Leyther said:

It would help if you could tell us which match you’re talking about!!

  Batley v Featherstone penalty count 14-4 and numerous six agains.It is vary rare for me to comment on referees but he was terrible.

[The Phantom Horseman]

The penalty count in the Batley Fev game was 10-5 in Batley's favour, people seem to be just repeating figures that others have made up on Facebook. Having watched the game back twice I don't think the ref did much wrong at all (there were a couple of contentious calls by the linesmen).

[Keep The Faith]

9 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

The penalty count in the Batley Fev game was 10-5 in Batley's favour, people seem to be just repeating figures that others have made up on Facebook. Having watched the game back twice I don't think the ref did much wrong at all (there were a couple of contentious calls by the linesmen).

Correct it came down to the errors from both teams 

It’s a big

from brown’s knock on and jones doesn’t keep hold it’s could of been closer anyway we move and go again next weekend 

[sentoffagain2]

18 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

The penalty count in the Batley Fev game was 10-5 in Batley's favour, people seem to be just repeating figures that others have made up on Facebook. Having watched the game back twice I don't think the ref did much wrong at all (there were a couple of contentious calls by the linesmen).

   If you think that was an acceptable refereeing performance you must be the only Rovers supporter that does.!0-5 is still 2to 1 against which is totally out of proportion to most games of Rugby League.How many six again's for each team can you please give me those stats I was standing behind the sticks and all the supporters around me were complaining about the ref.Going to the car on the way out the conversation was how bad the ref had been against us.And how many times do you see spectators of a winning team boo a ref off.He was very poor to terrible and i disagree with your comment that he didn't do much wrong.

[The Phantom Horseman]

6 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:

   If you think that was an acceptable refereeing performance you must be the only Rovers supporter that does.!0-5 is still 2to 1 against which is totally out of proportion to most games of Rugby League.How many six again's for each team can you please give me those stats I was standing behind the sticks and all the supporters around me were complaining about the ref.Going to the car on the way out the conversation was how bad the ref had been against us.And how many times do you see spectators of a winning team boo a ref off.He was very poor to terrible and i disagree with your comment that he didn't do much wrong.

Fine, I am well aware most Fev fans were unimpressed with him, but that's because we were heavily penalised. Fans of every team will always moan when that's the case.  We had five or six "6 agains" against us in the second half but there was only one that I thought was debatable, and there could have been more.

I've lost count of the number of times when I've been at a game and moaned about the refereeing, only to find when i get home and review the game in the cold light of day that most of the decisions were correct.  Being objective about your own team isn't easy, especially when you're standign with lots of supporters from your own team, which is why RL social media is littered with people moaning about the ref on every team's forum.

 

[sentoffagain2]

13 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Fine, I am well aware most Fev fans were unimpressed with him, but that's because we were heavily penalised. Fans of every team will always moan when that's the case.  We had five or six "6 agains" against us in the second half but there was only one that I thought was debatable, and there could have been more.

I've lost count of the number of times when I've been at a game and moaned about the refereeing, only to find when i get home and review the game in the cold light of day that most of the decisions were correct.  Being objective about your own team isn't easy, especially when you're standign with lots of supporters from your own team, which is why RL social media is littered with people moaning about the ref on every team's forum.

 

  You thought only 1 of the six debatable but referees usually give a little leeway to teams to help the flow of the game.3 against us i would be ok with.How many six again's against Batley.If refs stuck  to the rules they could find a penalty in almost every set which would spoil the game.I value your opinion and fact wise you are a real asset to the Forum.But on Fridays refereeing performance we are miles apart.

[Daft old hooker]

I think the standard of officiating is pretty poor across the board and it’s really putting me off the game. It has got to the point where I have started to watch other sports instead, such as next  weekend instead of going to watch Fev in London I’m going to watch Leeds Knights in the ice hockey playoffs in Coventry and have already bought a season ticket for next season.

[The Phantom Horseman]

20 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:

3 against us i would be ok with.

But shouldn't it be the merits of each individual decision rather than the number?

I've watched the game back twice . Apart from one incident where I thought the Batley player might have been holding the Fev player in, I thought all the 6 again decisions were fairly easy ones for the ref, and there were a couple more he could have given too. It was no wonder that Elijah Taylor on commentaries was moaning about our discpline, as some of them were in situations where they didn't really need to concede 6 again.